Organising
poor and marginalised women
Tiruvallur
district comprises 14 blocks with a combined population of 27,54,756,
24% of them from oppressed dalit community. CRUSADE's project
area comprises Minjur and Sholavaram blocks of Ponneri taluk, which
is a reserved assembly constituency for Scheduled Caste.
CRUSADE forms women SHGs predominantly among dalit population who
are socially discriminated and economically very poor. These families
live in thatch houses or in Government group houses of poor quality.
Most of them have no land but depend on agriculture labour for their
income. They have low literacy levels and health status. Of the 550
groups with total membership of 9,000, 60% of the members belong to
this community. Groups are formed among below poverty line families
after assessing their poverty status with a set of indicators on housing,
occupation and assets of the families.
CRUSADE
has been forming and sustaining Self Help Groups of poor and marginalized
women for the past 17 years. All the groups have built substantial
savings and common fund for the credit needs of its members. Bank
linkages helped groups mobilize additional funds and government grants
under different schemes.The groups have been federated at Panchayat
level and the project level. , Structures in place of these Community
Based Organisations ensure managing, sustaining and developing the
groups and members in social and economic spheres.Case
Study: Lakshmi Group
Women’s
Day
PPI Trust organizes women’s day on 8th
march every year. In 2009, around 3000 women members gathered at Ponneri, the
central town, for the event. A cultural
team, consisting all girls, from a project village performed awareness
programmes on health and women’s issues. In 2010, several Panchayat level
Federations separately organised the program at panchayat level.